


RWBY Desertion (Remastered)

by DatRtfantho



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, Multi, Post-Volume 2 (RWBY), Pre-Volume 3 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:40:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26075821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DatRtfantho/pseuds/DatRtfantho
Summary: Gage Sim deserted the Kingdoms, isolating himself to the outskirts of Mountain Glenn for almost unknown reasons... at least until he was found by four girls calling themselves Team RWBY. And not that long after meeting them, he begins to form a bond with a certain Blonde Brawler while one of his other new friends learns a deadly secret that they'll go to lengths to hide... YangxOC.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Sun Wukong, Yang Xiao Long/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 1





	RWBY Desertion (Remastered)

**Author's Note:**

> (A/N): Alright so a fair warning. I've never posted anything on Archive of Our Own, and frankly I'm just shotgunning this thing out onto the site. I post mainly on Fanfiction.net, and I'm just trying to expand y'know? Anyways, Hello and welcome to RWBY: Desertion (Remastered!) This story was adapted from the original RWBY: Desertion fanfiction I started back in 2014 when i was 15, and that was a 60 chapter long story, which still has a currently on-going sequel story. This will be a smaller, more canon/plot focused, and more self-aware adaptation of the original. So in places where the story may seem rushed or jumpy, remember this.
> 
> I'll still be doing my best to keep things spaced out evenly. Chapter length can be massive at times btw, and just so you know I'm trying to make this a slight AU story that begins between Volumes 2 & 3\. So hopefully people could start reading this right after watching RWBY Volume 2 and it won't feel out of place. I hope it's able to grab onto people and keep them even more intrigued than the original one did, but I guess we'll find out soon enough. Now, without any further interruptions… let's get started.
> 
> WARNING: This is an M rated story. Blood, Violence, Harsh language, Sexual content (Smut, Lemons, etc.) are included. 
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own RWBY. It belongs to Monty Oum (God Bless), Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross, etc. I only own my OC. Any music referenced or mentioned is owned by their respective artists as well.
> 
> Edit: Forgot to mention that this story is also available on Fanfiction.net, Wattpad and the RWBY Amino!
> 
> Song: Hold On Hope by Dan Gautreau

…

Chapter 1 - Pilot

It wasn't that long after the Vale Breach that Yang Xiao Long began to have a recurring nightmare… well, it was more of a dream rather than something frightening. Either way, she would wake up in a cold sweat upon witnessing it each and every time… only to go on and not remember most of it for the rest of that day. Needless to say it kept her up at night, and after about a week of this she managed to piece it together pretty well inside of her mind. It was short, ominous… and went a little like this.

There would be the normal black, blank, and timeless void of nothingness that was apart of her slumber for a short while until a twinkling sound would begin, something akin to wind chimes that were being gently pressed together over and over again. Then light would fill the void, and it revealed Beacon Academy's main courtyard as it appeared under the cover of night before Yang would finally be seen walking out in the middle of the structure.

Her steps were calm and methodical as he legs swayed, but they quickly started to slow to a cautionary speed as she reached the center of the courtyard where one of the academy's many statues were erected. The reason she stopped however, was because of the presence of another woman. She had black long hair just like the blonde's, wore dark and red clothes that consisted of a dress, a skirt, leggings, boots, and a full-faced grimm mask that was colored eerily similar to one that would've been worn by the White Fang.

Yang had seen this person before. It was the same woman that seemingly saved her during her fight against the vicious criminal named Neo when Team RWBY tried to stop a hijacked train under the abandoned city of Mountain Glenn. This preceded the breach, and Yang might've not been there to help the City of Vale if it wasn't for this mystery person.

The blonde stopped and faced her directly while she also stood in a way so there was a good distance between them both, but Yang didn't seem that scared of her. Instead, she looked to be both curious and wary of the woman… so when the air between them began to grow dense, the brawler questioned her outright. No hesitation needed.

"...Who are you?"

The woman said nothing at first and just continued to stare at the younger girl for a few moments before she turned her head to one side, bowed it a bit, and reached for her grimm mask with one of her hands. She then slowly began to remove it from her face, and as it came off completely… the woman began to look familiar. Too familiar in fact, almost like she was an exact mirrored image of Yang, but with darker colors.

When the mask was finally gone and could no longer shroud the quote on quote 'doppelganger', the woman in black and red turned and looked up into Yang's now red eyes with her own matching pair, and could only smile with relief as she answered the blonde with one hell of an ominous statement...

"Yang... We have a lot to talk about."

...

Team RWBY

Three Weeks After the Vale Breach...

...

It's been nearly a month since Vale's containment breach, and not that long after the event Team RWBY had been assigned to return to Mountain Glenn, without a Huntsman, to scout out and eliminate any remaining Creatures of Grimm in the city so the Atlesian army could move in and investigate the White Fang's underground staging area. Most of the infestation was eliminated during the event itself, so the rest of the stragglers were just seen as fodder.

The team didn't see this as a complicated assignment though, more so that it was just a nice way to take a break from Beacon Academy without the worry of taking down a cult of radical faunus along the way. Just some good old Grimm slaying… and now, it seemed like one member of the team needed this more than the others.

Inside of the city at this time, there seemed to be a single tired and nearly flawless lilac pupil that was stuck in its place as it stared out towards a barren and already explored concrete jungle. Destroyed, moss covered, and half-overgrown buildings surrounded the eye's field of view… with it being all that it could see, until-

"Hey, Yang! You doing okay?!"

A semi-conscious Yang Xiao Long then shined back to life as her little sister Ruby asked her this with some slight concern being heard through her tone, with the rest being mostly curiosity. As she questioned her older sister, their black and white colored corgi named Zwei began to bark at the blonde as well… since the Team managed to sneak him out of Beacon, again.

The smaller Rose really just questioned her older sister because of the fact that she already had bags under her eyes, and also because of how quiet the group had become due to her lack of icebreakers, or shitty puns. The blonde brawler just seemed to be completely tired, if such a thing was possible.

"Yeah, i'm fine Ruby. Guess i just haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately..."

And finally there were glimpses of Team RWBY as her teammates Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna remained ahead of the two sisters, occasionally looking back at the blonde brawler out of concern. They both didn't choose to say anything, since they were all pretty tired after what's happened during the last month.

Let's just say that Yang never got her wish to 'sleep forever'. Instead it was just get up, go to class, kill grimm, and then sleep. It's been three weeks ever since their first initial mission to Mountain Glenn with Dr. Oobleck… but unlike him, the four girls didn't have a class to teach. It was kind of a good thing he didn't come either, because when a once in a lifetime opportunity came stomping on by... He wasn't there to intervene.

Their more rowdy team member nearly came back to life when this occurred, and that event turned out to be the sighting of a lone Goliath type Grimm. The team was quick to reach a cliffside that formed from the collapsed part of the city, and it provided a perfect view of the creature as it slowly roamed through the countryside surrounding Mountain Glenn.

"Whoa… Ruby, that's one of those Goliaths you saw last time, right?" Yang asked, as Ruby was quick to kind of disregard the creature's presence. She basically ignored it, and crouched next to the edge of the cliff tiredly as she scooped Zwei up into her arms. "Yeah, but we don't need to worry about it. It's old and knows not to attack us."

Her older sister smiled though, and put her hands on her hips as he looked to their left where a pile of collapsed concrete was formed into a clear path that could lead down to the bottom of the cliff. "...Well in that case, i'm gonna get a closer look at it-" And as she went to start heading down, Ruby chose to interject with almost unmatchable speed.

"Wait, why are you interested in it now anyway Yang? Before I was the one who was staring at it while you guys were setting up camp!"

The next few bouts between the team occurred as each of them just casually jumped from different landings on their way down into the forested outskirts of the city, and Yang generally seemed to feel like she was on top of things… despite still feeling pretty sleep deprived.

Something like that never really stopped her from being talkative though, "We were on a mission to stop the White Fang then. We're not anymore though, so now I'D like to be the one to run around and watch the undead circus over there… we've earned a break anyway, right guys?" She asked this while looking up at her team as they were also climbing down with a lot more caution, and that was when Weiss suddenly erupted.

"What?! Yang, we're not at the zoo! This whole city is a free-fire zone!"

"Weiss, we're like ants to that thing! And like Ruby said, it won't do anything unless we provoke it..."

Then the blonde waited and watched as Blake hopped down onto the same rickety platform as her before she wrapped an arm around her partner and smiled sweetly at the stray. "Oh come on, it'll be quick! ...You've got my back, right Blake?" Yang asked as her partner chose to trust her choice blindly, if just this one time in particular.

"...Sure?" She replied nervously but soon figured that it's been a long day for all of them, including herself… and it wasn't like they were going to try and kill the giant Grimm. It'd be quite a sight too, as long as each of them remained cautious. "-But let's just hurry, it's going to be dark soon."

And after that last forewarning, each of the four girls leapt off of their respective platforms and tried to perform their best superhero landings respectively, landing next to each other in their usual Team order before Weiss looked over at everyone else, and smirked whilst she shook her head passive aggressively...

"You guys are going to be the death of someone... Not me, but someone."

…

Gage Sim

One Year, Six Months after Desertion

…

Somewhere on one of Mountain Glenn's more brush covered cliffs, there was what looked to be a makeshift tent near the edge of the place, and even as the sun shined through many of it's holes and tears, the sound of light breaths could be heard coming from the tiny shelter. The tent itself was very small in nature too, and because of that it's occupant's brown shoes could be even be seen sticking out of the tarp's mouth as birds chirped all around it…

The sound of them seemed calm and soothing for a while as the person inside of it continued to rest… but eventually, what felt like a large impact far off in the distance ended up spooking the local wildlife, mainly a murder of crows. They stopped and flew away as the ground shook once again, with the rapid chirps and caws being the thing that shook the forest dweller awake.

But for some reason, he didn't wake up peacefully. With the loud and screeching sound of white noise causing him to jolt up off of the blanket under him, and the man gasped loudly as he stopped and raised his body up halfway while he started to pant like he'd just had the wind knocked out of him. It felt like it too, and that made the man groan a bit after he realized he was safe from whatever that noise was.

He looked to be a nearly nineteen year old teenager and his name was Gage Sim. From how he appeared, he had medium-length auburn colored hair with the front of the cut being seemingly to be swooned to one side, along with a patchy/unkempt short-length beard that had been left uncut for a while now. Scruffy would've honestly been the one word to describe him.

Pretty soon he noticed that one of his hands was gripping the knife sheath that was on his thigh, and he soon just exhaled as he instead chose to stretch by putting his arms back behind his head. And after he felt settled again, he reached into his back pocket before he took out two brown fingerless gloves and started to put them on. But while he did this the man heard something jingle not that far from him… not a small object like windchimes, but something that was a lot wider. That was a tune he honestly feared worse than anything that was off in the distance, and it alarmed him so much that his turquoise eyes went wide before he lurched back and pulled a shotgun out of his tent.

It was a modified Model 1887 equipped with a rifle stock and rusted ACOG sight. Our dweller was quick to pull it's action lever back and forth as he nearly jumped out of his tent, ran behind it, and was about to blindly aim at the noise… until he saw the source of it. In actuality, Gage had set up his own sort of makeshift alarms with chicken wires and old food cans that were set between various trees, and were supposed to make noise if anything curious or deadly chose to try and catch him while he was napping.

He now realized that it turned out to be kind of a bad idea though, as a horse was just standing idle at one of the wire lines and had one of the metal cans in her mouth. Chewing it slowly. This steed turned out to be his own horse as well, "Seriously? Again?!" He asked his friend, even though he knew he wasn't getting an answer.

Relief was quick to fill him as he lowered the gun and walked over only to grab the can, sigh, and pull it away from his steed's mouth as he shook his head. "*sigh* ...One of these days I'm gonna shoot first and ask questions later. Questions like, 'why couldn't she just leave the damn cans alone'?" Believe it or not he was still relieved on the inside, but frustrated too.

It was all just baffling as he watched his horse slowly bite the metal shell one last time until he just turned around, chucked it far off of the cliff... and turned back to lightly pat the horse on the side of her neck after he got one good huff out of his system. This wasn't the first time for him to be faked out by the fact that his horse loved shiny objects, and he doubted that it'd be the last… though, it wasn't like she could help it anyway.

The horse could only exhale in a sweet tone before it nonchalantly began to rest her chin on top of his forehead, like she didn't mind at all that he just scold her. This made Gage sigh again, before he patted her neck once more and walked back over to his encampment. "...Just give me five minutes. I'll give you something once I'm done packing, alright?"

He got another tiny snort as a response, and took that as a yes. So, with that he began his usual morning routine. Tried his best to wash himself with the limited amount of water he had, packed up his tent and can-alarms, cleaned his weapons before he put his shotgun on his back and made sure that his knife hadn't fallen out of its sheath, fixed his horse's saddle so it could hold some of his supplies, and last but not least, he got dressed.

He put his black shirt back on, put on a worn grey hoodie and pulled out what looked like a sage/olive colored leather jacket out of his tent before he rolled it back up, and he put that on top of everything. He already had a pair of matching, ripped dark brown jeans and roughed up/duct-taped boots on as well, but nearly forgot about the last part of his outfit.

Gage remembered it just as he came back to fit the saddle he had back onto his horse, and that was when he pulled a sage bandana out of his back pocket before he stared at it intently for a moment, and tied it around where his jacket sleeve covered up his right bicep. The whole time he kept staring at it with a breathless concentration… until he reached into one of his horse's saddlebags and took out what looked like a small grain-cookie and fed it to her,

"Here. Not a lot left, so don't eat too fast…"

He was more so reiterating that fact to himself, and since hunting any animals in a place like this was a feat in itself, the two partners had a new choice ahead of them if they were going to make it through the next month alive. Either risk going back to the city and refill any supplies they could find… or go out further into Vale's outskirts, and scavenge what they can. One of those options had better insurance for them than the other, and Gage knew this. He didn't know how to approach re-entering the city though, since the last time the pair was there… they had unexpected company. Nearly killed him in the process, and for a while the two friends were separated in the dead of winter.

That was something he didn't want to remember right now though, and as he finished up attaching his rolled up tent to Beanie's saddle, Gage turned back and looked out over towards the view of the land that this plateau had to offer. It was high up enough that he could actually see the ruined city far off in the distance… along with a single Goliath that seemed to just be roaming the wild forest without a care in the world.

He minded it at first and just assumed it was older and slower than the rest of it's group, and he was about to go back to pondering about his current predicament… until that pesky undead elephant broke his concentration yet again. By now he'd heard it just trumpet a few times with its trunk here and there, but this time an explosion rang out from it again.

Like… an actual detonation. Gage jumped a bit by the suddenness of it as well, and glanced down from the city to see that a small cloud of dust and powder was smoking right off of the creature's face. That sight nearly made his jaw drop, and he stepped away from the edge of the cliff with caution right as the Goliath let out another deafening bellow.

The booming groan even gave off a shockwave if you could believe it, and all the trees around their little camp shook violently as Gage nearly lost his footing from the wind, and Beanie hollered out loudly due to how loud the call was. When he caught himself and could now clearly see that the beast was throwing a fit and calling for help, all Gage could really do was stammer with amazement… but not for the reason you would think.

"...Who could be that STUPID-?!"

Then right before he could finish, what seemed like a symphony of howls and other animalistic cries came from throughout the surrounding area, from every hole or burrow that the grimm thrived in… and soon enough an overzealous aura of dread came over the two partners on the cliffside.

"...Shit." Was the only thing Gage had to say to this. It was like a heat of hot, raw energy brushed against him and chilled his bones to the core in some weird dichotomistic way.

Being grounded like that was quite the experience, and he could only imagine what it was like for the people at the epicenter of this emotional bomb. For them he usually would've just hoped for the best… except this brought the attention of the Grimm towards the path he was about to take. The city was his only option of surviving now as much as he hated that fact, and these undead animals are about to block him from it unless he chose to do something drastic.

...And unfortunately, Gage was already feeling a little creative today. Solving this problem wasn't an instantaneous decision for him to make, yet he believed that it was the only way for him to survive, along with whoever else was down there. "Beanie, get over here!"

He called his steed who fidgeted a bit, but remained calm enough to approach and allow for her caretaker to grab her reins and direct her head so it'd be looking towards Mountain Glenn. That only, and soon he just started pointing at the city before he tried to give her a command.

"GO. THERE. And don't stop. I'll find you on the way, just like last time!"

Gage asked the horse if she remembered as some sort of way to ease his own nerves, and when the horse snorted once more in a calmer tone, he just turned her around to face the forest and smacked her behind to get her to trot off into the treeline. "GO ON, GET!"

Beanie hollered again with another breath escaping from her nostrils and did as he instructed her to… he just hoped she was smart enough to not head in just one direction. He'd rather not lose her in battle either considering how messy that'd be, and it wasn't like she was his only way of getting down there.

After she was gone and vanished from the cliffside, Gage hesitantly moved back towards the edge and looked down the left side of the cliff to see that there was a pattern of connecting trees on various levels that had their branches outstretched in a way that would allow for him to swing down. He'd picked this location to camp at for that very reason in case he got attacked, not to mention that it looked like one hell of a ride down to the ground floor. In a manner of speaking.

"*sigh* ...I swear, if I get impaled-!"

So without very much hindsight or time on his hands, he took a few steps back, wiggled the stock of his shotgun to make sure that the weapon's gun strap would keep it in place on his back during flight, and let out a loud exasperated breath as he ran forward and eventually jumped off of the cliff's edge.

Gage aimed for the trees and got the angle right as he landed feet first onto one of his branches, and started to take the long way down with a few trips and recoveries along the way as he went from tree to tree. At this point he had some part of a plan already forming in his head… however, he'd soon learn that the situation was worse than he thought.

...

…A Minute Earlier.

...

Despite a mutual agreement being reached, Ruby and Weiss continued to try and counter this odd desire from the blonde by sharing their own quiet concerns whilst also watching Zwei like a hawk, but it soon boiled down to the team following Yang down into the countryside to make sure that no one ended up getting hurt. The Goliath included, so then no more Grimm could be drawn in.

Eventually after their trek brought the Team to a treeline that hid them all pretty well, Yang burst through the brush and held a bush apart with her hands so that Blake could take the first step out into the clearing that the giant grimm had chosen to roam down. She was the first to emerge, and one of the beast's giant feet landed right in front of the cat faunus, which made her jump from the force of its impact on the ground. A large pounding noise echoed throughout the area as well, and that was when the rest of the team came out to watch.

Blake cursed to herself, but was quickly out of breath after she nearly slammed herself into Ruby. She put her hands out to try and stop her, while Yang chuckled quietly for a quick second before she went out ahead and was the first to look up at the Goliath. Weiss hesitantly joined her afterwards just to get this whole thing over with, and by the time the team was all group together in their usual formation under the canopy of the forest… the goliath let out a trumpet-esque call once it raised its trunk as high as it could.

What the four girls didn't know was that this call wasn't some random display of it's docility… no. In actuality, it was a call for help since the creature was still by itself. And unfortunately, it didn't take long for 'help' to arrive. A pair of dark red eyes soon began to crawl through the tall grass and past the many towers of lumber that littered the forest, and it's gaze remained on the four girls until it reached striking distance.

None of them really were taking note of their surroundings when it would be more than crucial to their survival, and what happened next would nearly prove to be a fatal end for the girls. As the Goliath slowly turned its head towards RWBY to the point where only one of it's eyes kept its gaze on them all.

Each of the girls were taken aback by this and briefly froze in place, like if the beast's vision seemed to be based on movement... well, everyone except for Blake, as her heightened senses were quick to pick up on what was happening. Before she knew it her bow twitched on it's own once the faint snapping of a twig was heard, and after that it seemed like fight or flight kicked in.

"WATCH OUT!"

Her body moved faster than she could process, and with both arms she managed to push Yang and Weiss out of the way just before a Beowulf slashed at Blake's back. Thankfully though, one of her clones took her body's place just in time thanks to her semblance, and she appeared again in front of it, only to unsheath Gambol Shroud and send it's blade straight down the middle of the beast's head.

That stopped it dead in its tracks, but only more Grimm came once that wolf and the stray's clone dissipated into a combined black mist, with the team now activating/unsheathing all of their collective weapons as they dispersed and were promptly charged at by the rest of the beowulf pack. The short battle commenced right next to the Goliath's feet, and it didn't get involved because of how small the team was compared to it… however, that was until it's peaceful waltz was interrupted by one of the girls.

Bits and pieces of the fight contained a more offensive Ruby unloading a spin cycle of pain onto one of the Grimm with Crescent Rose, their defensive Weiss giving out calculated strikes to keep her own undead target a bay, our previously startled Blake as she held both of her blades now, and blocked a strike with her sharpened sheath while she shifted the main part of Gambol Shroud into its pistol form and fired back at the grimm that came at her.

As for Yang… well she was surprisingly taking a little too long to get back into her fighting spirit. The blonde was pursued by her own wolf as she tried to get back up off of the ground since she fell all the way down after Blake had pushed her. She continually rolled around on her back to avoid various downward stabs that came from the creature until she was able to get some footing again, and her first blow wasn't as calculated because of that.

She tried to strike the monster in the face at a slower speed than normal, so it used this to its advantage by ducking low and grasping Yang's wrist tightly as it rose back up and attempted to bite her neck. The blonde also tried to fire off a shot to add an extra punch to her attack, and because of that, the Beowulf was able to bend her hand back to the point where a round was fired up into the air behind the girl… which hit the Goliath right in the eye.

It was going to happen eventually, and the earth-shaking moan of pain was enough of a distraction for her to finally deliver one stunning blow to the grimm once her other gauntlet formed around her left fist. Yang buried her hand deep into its gut to the point where it coughed up some spittle all over her shoulder, and grossed her out enough to where she gasped and jumped back… which ended up being a reasonable, but critical mistake.

Because by this time their commotion just so happened to attract another pack of unwelcomed Grimm, with these creatures being a more fox/jackal type of canine. They were smaller and significantly less dangerous from the vicious wolf pack, but they still managed to distract the blonde just as easily.

She didn't sense their presence or even hear them until a symphony of hyena-like welts came from behind her. It was like they almost came out of nowhere from her perspective, and three of the 'dingos' began to attack her at once, and the blonde took two of the Grimm out before she ended up on the ground.

Their small scuffle gave enough time for the previously Injured beowulf to recover, and when she wrestled the last Jackal off of herself, Yang looked back to have her eyes become interlocked with the wolf's right as it reapproached and chose to pounce towards her. Her eyes widened, and she tried to get her hands up to defend but she wouldn't have enough time to turn around as she was lying on the ground still.

Luckily for her though… someone else had her back. Because as the beast's claws and fangs came inches from being embedded into Yang's flesh, a man she hadn't seen before leapt out and caught the beast by its stomach, almost carrying the grimm all the way back to where it was earlier before they both landed in the dirt. And upon impact the man struggled with the creature as he flipped it onto it's back, pulled out a large curved knife, and stabbed it right in the gut before he drove it up through its chest.

With that, the Beowulf just let out a large screeching yelp right before it exploded into a dark cloud of mist that clouded the stranger's figure from Yang… but she still kept staring at him. From she could tell, he was a few inches taller than her, had auburn colored hair, turquoise eyes, a scruffy face, and was dressed in dark green and brown clothing. The only thing she couldn't know at this point was his name.

The rest of Team RWBY turned to stare at him once they realized that the blonde had gotten herself in a tough spot but couldn't do anything to help right then, and they also did it mostly because it seemed like he came out of nowhere. But Gage didn't expect these people to be a group of teenage girls, or a group at all. So he didn't take the time for some dramatic reveal, instead he swatted away the black fog and just yelled at Yang and the others,

"GO!"

His voice resonated for each of the girls as they became alarmed from his tone, and Blake was quick to run and get Yang back onto her feet right as Gage looked towards Ruby and Weiss, raised his blade, which was a curved Kukri knife, up at an angle that looked like he was just pointing it at them. Then, the pieces of the blade and grip began to shift and move apart in his hands, until the weapon looked to have shifted into some knife-revolver hybrid.

He followed up with this 'greeting', by blasting the two other beowolves they were fighting in the head after he pulled the hammer back on his pistol, and shouted at them some more once he lowered the gun. "GET HER, AND LEAVE! I'LL LEAD THEM AWAY!" The only thing he got from them was a quick and nervous little nod before Blake brought Yang over to the rest of the team, and they began to run back into the forest.

"Wait-don't-he could die!"

Yet, as she looked back, Yang began to protest once she saw the man turn back to the Goliath with his revolver, aimed it up at it's massive body, and fire a single shot at it again which made the giant elephant stomp it's feet continuously with a seething rage that had been built up over a long time. By the time this happened though, RWBY had already dragged their last member into the treeline.

Only when they were gone did he get to work, and it felt like an entire different part of his mind took the wheel while Gage's subconscious was just there along for the ride. In what looked like quick flashes of consciousness, he witnessed himself as his body took one big leap towards the Goliath's leg, and he was able to grip it's flesh with his free hand.

When his revolver turned back into its knife form, he jammed it into the Grimm before he blinked twice and found himself clambering up onto it's back as the beast started to cry out and shake it's body violently as if it was a giant wet dog that was just trying to get rid of one pesky flea.

Then the inevitable happened, because soon after it's shake-out ended the Goliath did the last thing it could think of and began to stampede into the distant part of the forest that appeared to be populated with taller and more frayed-looking trees, hoping to knock off or kill the small offender by stomping into and past the pines.

Things were clearly gonna get bumpy for Gage, and he would've lost his footing pretty early on if he hadn't stabbed his knife once more into the Goliath's back to keep himself in place. "*pant* ...A GROUP OF GIRLS. IT HAD TO BE A GROUP OF GIRLS, HUH?!" Once he was able to find his balance again, albeit briefly, he made a mad dash towards the elephant's neck… not in an effort to kill it though, just to use the creature's blindspot to his advantage.

His goal was already complete since they were for sure far from Team RWBY now, and as he continuously slashed and shot the Goliath as he ran up it's back, he saw an opening to get off of this ride as the Grimm stopped completely and raised its body backwards so it could stand only on its hind legs. Gravity would do it's work then, but not before Gage was able to reach its neckline in time and went on to desperately sprint up the Goliath's head while it was still leveled.

As it raised upwards more and more he could only run up it's face to reach the one exit point he really had left in mind, which was the trunk now that it was the highest point he could get to. That was his endgame, and he even sheathed his weapon when he was at the halfway point to try and gain some extra speed with the movement of his arms. And when he finally reached the tip of the Goliath's trunk, he chose to take a leap of faith as he grunted heavily, and just hurled himself off of it right before the elongated snout was able to point straight up into the sky.

Gage could only hold his breath and remain dead silent in order to not throw up or scream his lungs out, and as he fell further down towards Remnant, he rolled his arms and kicked his legs momentarily… until his body just disappeared. His green aura shone for a second as he fell through the roaring air, and just like that… poof. He was gone. Nothing else could be seen or heard as the Goliath continued to stampede through Glenn's Forest, and it eventually went off towards the mountains until it could no longer be seen, and that was when everything went black for our so called 'hero'.

…

Later…

…

After about twenty minutes of different opinions being discussed about what to do, RWBY eventually went looking for the missing man as they were afraid he could become a victim of the Goliath's wrath. So with Zwei going and leading the rest of the group as he sniffed the ground for any sort of scent, the four girls followed with an immense sense of hopelessness overtaking them.

"You guys, Zwei isn't a bloodhound." Weiss argued, while the group were already beginning to follow the corgi into a deeper part of the forest. "There's no way he'd be able to track the guy's scent that well, even if we had something for him to catch it from..."

"Well we have to try, don't we?" Yang asked in return. At this point they were all walking over large logs and rocks just to get through the treeline… and soon enough, Zwei's ears perked up as he looked ahead into what appeared to be a circular clearing.

It didn't appear to be natural though, which Blake quickly noticed after she could see that there were turned over and knocked down trees that they had to walk over. And when they got closer to where sunlight could shine through the forest's canopy, Ruby pushed ahead past her team and nearly gasped as she moved a branch that was obscuring her vision, and let her eyes to adjust to the light.

"...So much for that, look!"

She then pointed towards the center of the trees, directly under the opened part of the canopy… and that was where Gage ended up falling. He didn't plan ahead for a happy landing unfortunately, so he just braced himself and hoped for the best, which ended with him crashing into the forest and being pinned to the ground by various knocked over trees that collapsed in the wake of his impact.

He had been pretty much buried by one of them with just his head showing while his left arm was outstretched towards the team,and his eyes remained closed. Things quickly got a lot more real upon seeing him like this, and the four girls were quick to rush over… except for Yang, who was trying to stop Ruby from getting too close.

Luckily Blake came over to stand in front of their young leader instead and she nodded for Yang to go ahead and take a look at him since Zwei quickly started to bark and scamper over to the body around the same time the rest of the group spotted him. The blonde girl didn't say anything, and reluctantly took the first step towards him as Weiss stopped and said something under her breath.

"Oh no…" Then surprisingly, she too followed Yang's lead and began to approach the man once she took out her scroll and tapped a few times on it's screen until what looked like a camera with a negative filter came up. "Any one of us could've jumped off of that thing and been fine, so how far do you think he fell? Unless it ended up throwing him with its trunk..." Blake asked this from behind her two teammates, and the heiress just looked up into the air briefly and back down at the dirt below Gage's body to see that there was a small crater beneath him.

"It's at least enough of a distance to leave a dent in the earth... and that's still pretty high up, thrown or not. " She answered, with a little sarcasm.

Soon after she and Yang both got close enough to him, their brawler was quick to try and lift the strewn about logs off of the man until all of his features could be seen by everyone. This caused his raised arm to fall against his side, and Zwei began to sniff his leg up until he got up to his right hand and lightly licked it as he whined a bit. "Zwei, NO. Don't do that!"

Yang was quick to try and push the corgi away from him, and at the same time this happened, Weiss took out her scroll and began to fiddle with its other functions. She tapped it's screen a few times until it's camera was pulled up and the heiress seemingly applied an inverted filter to it. This had an actual purpose to it, as it was now scanning his person for any signs that his aura still active, even if it was depleted at this moment.

Fortunately it was highlighting a small barrier of white light around his body, and it made the heiress sigh a bit as she removed the filter and lowered her scroll. "Well his aura is regenerating, so at least we know he's not dead…" She said this, and right away Yang looked back at her sister and Blake as she gave them both a thumbs up.

"Okay Ruby, you're fine to look-" Their younger leader was already a little peeved at this point, but couldn't blame Yang for being so protective.

So after she groaned about it for a second, Ruby changed Crescent Rose into it's rifle mode and nudged Blake. "Ugh... Blake, let's watch the perimeter. We should probably stay sharp for any Grimm after a crash that loud..." Then she stood in front of Gage's body and aimed her weapon back towards the treeline, while Blake went behind him and did the same with Gambol Shroud.

Their blonde was quick to just look him up and down and hum to herself as she crossed her arms and crouched down right in front of Gage, just staring at his messed up hair and blank face as she couldn't help but feel thankful that he hadn't ended up being a corpse. "Jeez, he's knocked out cold…"

Soon enough Yang scooched close enough to the point where she could hear his small breaths escape from inside him, and that was when she noticed that he wasn't that much older than her, Weiss, or Blake. Maybe just a year older by her guess, and it caused her to form at least one basic question about him, one that Weiss asked before she had the chance to form the words, "Where did he come from anyway? I mean, who else would be roaming around here just for kicks..."

"Aside from us-" Blake murmured.

"Grrr, w-we can find that out later! Because as of right now, this guy isn't looking too hot."

Yang then threw her arms down and slightly growled at the fact that she seemed to be the only one who was trying to help him right then, not counting Ruby since she had to be shielded at the moment. Blake and Weiss still had their own concerns of course, they just focused on something else like checking his vital signs and listening for any Grimm hiding in the trees that surrounded the five of them.

"That, we can agree on." Still though, the heiress kind of smirked without looking at the man on the floor, and it slowly made their brawler begin to visibly fume with her hair now glowing ever so slightly. Soon enough, the heiress saw this, and put raised her hand up nervously.

"Relax, I'll request a Medical Bulkhead to pick us up! It's about time we left this place behind anyways…" The heiress could be seen tapping away on her scroll as she did just that, and pretty soon Ruby glanced up through the trees with a new sense of concern now crossing her mind… as it looked like the sky was getting a little orange.

"Do you think we'll make it back to the city before the sun goes down?" She questioned the rest of her team, and with Weiss and Yang being occupied with their own self made tasks, Blake just shrugged with another short reply,

"Not if we have to lug him all the way there…"

As the two partners continued to talk about their new problem in private, Yang sighed and chose to just try and actually see if he was comatose or something close to it. But the only way she could think of to test him… was to just lean in close to Gage and shout as she lightly tapped the side of his head with her finger. "Hey, wake up-!"

And she quickly got a reaction that none of them had planned for, as that was all it took for their new friend to jolt back to consciousness. For Gage it was kind of soothing at first, as he opened his eyes and became entranced with the pretty face that seemed to be staring back at him… until the nerves in his left knee became infected with an overwhelming amount of pain that built up and spread throughout that entire limb.

That, with a mix of just being surprised by Yang's presence got a loud, airless gasp out of their now wide-eyed 'savior', who raised his head up quickly and got the blonde brawler to jump back as an ear piercing scream escaped from her lips.

"Hu… H-HUH-!" The two of them backed away from each other with Gage pressing his back against one of the logs, since her scream basically deafened him, and that was when his burst of adrenaline from the previous fight finally ran out. "RRRGH-Oh-my-FUCK! My leg!"

He clutched his left leg like he'd just either been shot in the knee, or he'd woken up with a charley horse that was conjured up by the god of darkness himself. Sure, it might've been a bit of an overreaction, but at least it got Team RWBY's attention too.

"AGH, GET, THIS-off of me!" Zwei was already barking by the time Gage saw that a heavy branch had rolled onto his shin/ankle area, and Yang huffed with frustration as she jumped in and lifted it off of him. However, Weiss crouched down next the blonde too and was able to cover his mouth in an effort to silence him. "Hey calm down, it's not like it's broken! ...I-Is it?" She asked him nervously.

Due to him still being muted by her hand, Gage darted his eyes to the side and started to wiggle his left foot slowly, which went unnoticed by the girl, until he looked back at Weiss and shook his head politely as a way to say no. That was when she released him, and continued to berate the guy in front of her teammates, "What were you thinking back there? You could've died!"

"I could ask the four of you the same thing, 'snowflake..."

"Whu-W-What did you just call me?!"

His reply was swift once he was able to take another breath in, and it made would've made Ruby let out a cheeky little giggle if she hadn't been so taken off guard by how Gage scared Yang, and how she didn't punch him in the face out of instinct. But as you could expect, the heiress still leaned down towards the man with her hands on her hips, and stammered to try and sound threatening.

"Don't, it's my fault this happened. Just another dumb blonde throwing herself at whatever stupid idea she comes up with next…" Before she could actually get her hands on the guy and ring his neck, Yang put a hand up and got in between the two. She looked down at him a little sullen-like before she turned away and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

He could tell that she was pretty hung up about what happened, even if he didn't know that she was the reason for the goliath's attack, and despite that Gage just tried to humor her with a painful smile as he started to bend his left knee a little, "Maybe... but did it at least look cool?-AUGH!"

Yang was surprised by his positivity and was about to smile as well, until an audible pop in his femur could be heard for a second as he grunted and switched legs so his right knee was closer to his chest while his left leg was laid flat out instead. It made both her and Ruby wince just because of the sound, and when it was clear that the bone still wasn't broken, Blake approached Gage from behind and leaned over him.

"Can you walk?"

"M-Might need a little help, but yeah…"

Her sharp amber eyes and straightforward tone made her come off as a bit eerie to him, and he couldn't help but tense up as her shadow seemingly loomed over his figure. Yet, after he answered with a little hesitation, she grinned and her voice raised to a higher octave, to where she even sounded cheerful… for a moment. "...Good. At least we can get back to the city a lot quicker now."

"You're headed there? Why?" Gage asked this in return to no one in particular with squinted eyes before Weiss re-approached him, and continued to just stare down at her scroll without much thought. "Our bullhead dropped us off there for our mission, so we need to find a way there if we're gonna get back to the academy…" That was when he started to pick up on some key words she was using, specifically the one at the end there.

"Wait. 'Mission', 'Academy' ...Are you guys from Beacon or something?"

"Yup!"

Ruby then exclaimed from behind the rest of her team, and got within the stranger's view as she now joined the group huddle that seemingly formed around him. She kind of put Gage off for a moment just by how cheerful her voice was compared to the rest of her team, and also because of her appearance, with the most obvious takeaway being that she was really young, but also that she didn't look scared or worried at all.

"...Alright-" Was all he could really say back to her. Now he finally had the whole picture of Team RWBY as each of them were now basically standing above him, and with a fifteen year-old girl among their ranks, anything they did felt like it was beyond criticism in his mind. It wasn't like he'd be any better If their roles were swapped anyway."-So you guys are trying to get back to Glenn, all the way from out here?"

"It's not ideal, but it's not the worst thing we've been through."

By the time Weiss shrugged with an answer the four girls unknowingly got into their team formation once Ruby got closer and stopped in front of him, and now it felt like if he made the wrong move he was going to be in for a world of hurt. But considering that both parties needed some kind of assistance, Gage figured that he'd better extend another olive branch, "If it makes you feel any better, I have a place there you guys can hunker down in. But the hard part is going to be getting through the grimm..."

"With just that little knife of yours, it could've been!" The heiress replied with a smirk.

Surprisingly, Gage snickered and tried not to laugh at the insult as he looked down at his sheathed weapon. (The actual sheath, of course) As this happened though, Ruby looked away for a moment and caught a glimpse of what looked to be a lever-action shotgun that had been covered up by one of the many branches that had fallen during his impact.

He didn't see it first, as he was too focused on talking to RWBY's older members since they kept the conversation going. His lost shotgun seemed to have landed a little far to the left of the crater his body made, and the rose was immediately glued to it. She nearly jogged over to it and pulled it out of the brush, only to hold it up and gasp as started to inspect Mistletoe like it was made of gold. "Whoa…!"

Gage remained clueless to her discovery however and was quick to get all serious again once he got a painful sounding chuckle in, questioning Weiss on her previous statement with a raised eyebrow. "Heh… And what do you mean by 'could've'?"

"Don't worry about it." Blake interrupted him with a blunt answer, and just as quickly as the girls presented themselves to the stranger, the stray glanced at her friends and nodded away from him, gesturing for them to group up together… in private.

Weiss complied right away while the two sisters were hesitant in following, but this time Yang was the one who chose to stick out instead of her younger sibling. Ruby still held Gage's shotgun in one hand and remained a little hidden from his view as Weiss scowled and crossed her arms again. "Something's telling me we're going to have a rough time with this extraction…" She basically growled.

Their faunus teammate shrugged again with barely any concern in her voice, "It's not like we have any other options—-" Right then Gage tried to lean up again, and cursed as another bone could be heard popping before he leaned his head back and covered his mouth as to not let anything loud escape from the depths of his lungs. Her and Yang were quick to face him when this happened, and all the girls fell silent after that… until Ruby just casually waved that off like it was nothing.

"We'll be fineee…"

Her partner and Blake groaned internally from this judgement, and as their leader started to brush one of her own shoulders nervously… the rose looked towards her older sister for guidance, as the blonde was still watching Gage closely. "...Yang?"

Small breaths escaped from him before he chose to say anything to the team, and after she collected her thoughts, Yang looked back at Blake, Weiss, and Ruby who continued to watch him with a mix of curiosity and caution. Lucky for them though, their blonde brawler still remained the most sociable of Team RWBY even in her restless state, and so she just nodded at her friends and humored the guy with a smirk as she stared down at him,

"Four deadly young ladies, and a hatless cowboy lying in the dirt… What could possibly go wrong?"

He continued to gaze at the four girls with confusion for the amount of time it took for a few random leaves to fall from the trees above the group of five and onto the grass below, before he finally snapped out of this random trance and realized that this blonde beauty was willing to return the favor of helping him out… and all he could do was awkwardly leave her hanging.

So Gage basically threw himself up off of the ground with a few extra gasps of air, and when he saw that neither Yang or Blake hadn't even moved a muscle to try and defend what could've been a surprise attack… he couldn't help but smile a bit as he grasped the blonde girl's outstretched hand and let her effortlessly pull him up onto his feet, "Probably a lot…"

His weight nearly made his injured knee buckle as soon as he was upright again, but Yang saw this and quickly turned her body so he could wrap an arm around the back of her neck and lean on her for support. Gage grimaced and gasped loud enough for everyone to hear, which was enough for Weiss to keep second guessing this decision.

"But, what if we don't make it there before dusk? The grimm thrive in the dark, remember…"

This time she actually looked him in the eye as she said this, and no one else could really provide her with an immediate solution or words of encouragement. Instead, all she got was a few extra barks from Zwei as he caught up with the group and lined up next to this stranger and Yang with his tongue sticking out.

The corgi surprised Gage for a moment, before he raised his head back up just in time to watch as Ruby walked towards him… and silently held his shotgun named Mistletoe out towards him with a wholesome twinkle in her silver eyes. His weapon's stock and trigger were presented to him without a second thought of caution, and so he lightly swung his arm over and clasped his weapon tightly as the rose let go. She then turned, took out Crescent Rose and stood beside her pup as Blake caved as well and chose to join up next to her partner without missing a beat.

With the others already going all in on this guy, the heiress felt like she had no other choice in the matter… and she didn't like being left out of things either, whether they were good or bad. But when she finally appeared to stop glaring at the guy, Gage tried to show off for her as he thrusted Mistletoe outwards, spun his hand backwards, and flip-cocked the shotgun. Showing that no matter what came next, he was ready to fight.

It was nothing that impressed her, but the gesture was enough to make Weiss just roll her eyes at him and turn around to face the woods in formation with Zwei, the rest of Team RWBY, and Gage... just as he finished his sentiment, and witnessed the fading light of the sun break through the forest once more. "Don't worry-"

"...I know a way."


End file.
